Botanic Gardens Restaurant

I park my car, and head to the map location that Zomato and Google both tell me is the place to go. There turns out to be nothing there. I didn't think the Botanic Gardens extended this far.

I take a walk, to the regular entrance to the Botanic Gardens. Upon arrival, I find them chained shut. I'm about to give up, but I call the number on a banner advertising the restaurant. There's a recorded message. Luckily, I hear the whole message out, because right at the end, I'm told "please note that access is via Plane Tree Drive." After a further walk, and encountering other people also looking for the restaurant, I arrive. It's been half an hour since I parked my car in the expensive parking on North Terrace.

A waiter is on the street, at the open entrance to the gardens. He's directing other lost individuals in. He offers me a free drink, and tells me where the restaurant is. There were supposed to be security guards out there, but they didn't arrive. That's really not a good answer. If I've made it through the puzzle this far, I'm definitely going to walk through the open gate. Such guards should be posted at the main gate.

Inside, a waiter greets me. He's from Penfolds Magill Estate, and recognises me. He recalls that I order still water. My knowledge of the many types of water fails me, and I don't realise that "still" means fancy bottled water. I usually just want filtered water. Now I have this 1L glass bottle of Italian water on my table. :| I'll ignore that in my total cost.

Salmon creme frâiche amuse
7/10

I'm not exactly sure what's edible here.

I stick to the salmon and cracker. The salmon and planty bits have pungent tastes. It's interesting.

The huge sprigs of plant weren't supposed to be eaten. Excellent work by me. :)

Yoghurt roasted pork belly
6/10

Red cabbage jam, carrot & yoghurt puree, cabbage chips.

The waitress was correct that the roasting in yoghurt causes the pork belly to not taste like pork belly. It causes it to lose basically all its flavour. It's certainly not unpleasant, it's just a piece of texture. When combined with the red cabbage jam, it tastes like the jam. When combined with the carrot and yoghurt puree, it tastes like nothing at all.

Whipped coconut, flax seed & coconut crumble
6/10

Avocado, lemon gel, lime chips, lemon myrtle.

This is interesting. There's nothing really solid in here. The base of the dish is basically desiccated coconut, with sweet coconut mush and sweet avocado mush. With the bigger pieces of shaved coconut, it's like a kind of pleasant dessert muesli.

The lime chips are simply dried pieces of lime. They're too sour, and not actually edible, due to their chewy rinds.

Time for me to go. Maybe I can jump the gate, rather than go for a 15-minute walk around the gardens again. :)

:( :( :( :( :( :(
Directions to restaurant wrong, absent
:)
View of gardens, service